The present invention relates generally to product dissemination, and particularly to distribution and sale of digital content products.
Publishers of digital content, e.g., computer software or image data, disseminate products to consumers in traditional fashion by packaging, shipping, and making available their products in retail outlets. A consumer goes to the retail outlet, selects a product for purchase, and interacts with a sales clerk to purchase the product. The consumer purchases the product by a variety of methods, e.g., cash, check, or credit card. The consumer must, however, visit the retail outlet during its business hours.
Some digital content distribution schemes allow free distribution of the digital product, e.g., by copying, or free distribution via telephone connection with a host computer. The consumer uses the product and, if willing, sends payment to the product source. Alternatively, a bulletin board system, e.g., America On Line or Compuserve, may allow users download privileges and later bill for the of files downloaded.
Other distribution schemes require payment first to obtain access to digital products on a particular host computer. For example, a bulletin board system takes the user-consumer's credit card number and establishes a given amount of credit for that user-consumer on the bulletin board system. The user-consumer then uses these system-credits to purchase products, i.e., download files containing digital products.
The compact disc read only memory (CD ROM), with its dense and massive storage capability, holds many digital products. Further, with data compression a single CD ROM holds a significant number of digital products. Encryption restricts unauthorized use of the digital products. The CD ROMs are distributed freely with a user-interactive program thereon allowing access to, i.e., trial use or purchase of, selected digital products. A recipient of the CD ROM executes the user-interactive program to sample, e.g., execute a limited number of times, the digital products. The recipient must purchase and receive delivery of the digital product, however, by voice interaction with an outside operator and by interaction with the user-interactive program.
The payment step occurs generally outside the user-interactive program. To pay for the selected product, the user-consumer calls an operator and identifies the product selected for purchase. The operator then receives verbally from the user-consumer a credit card number. This interaction likely requires the operator to read back the credit card number to confirm accuracy. The operator then interacts with the credit card bank, or banking network, to verify the credit card number and debit the user-consumer's credit card account for the purchase price of the selected digital product.
The operator then again interacts with the user-consumer and provides a "key" for unlocking the selected digital product, i.e., allowing a useable copy of the product to be taken from the CD ROM. The key, typically a long sequence of alpha-numeric characters, must be read verbally to the user-consumer and copied by the user-consumer. The user-consumer reads back to the operator the key again to verify accuracy. Human error and frustration make this portion of the purchase step undesirable for its lack of automation and undue complexity. In any event, the payment step gives to the user-consumer a key to unlock a particular digital product stored on his or her CD ROM.
The user-interactive program requires the user-consumer to manually enter the unlock key. If the correct key is entered, the user-interactive program delivers the product to the consumer, e.g., by decryption (unlocking) and/or de-compression, and copying a working or usable version of the digital product from the CD ROM onto the user-consumer's computing device.
FIG. 1A illustrates by data flow diagram use of the prior art CD ROM platform for digital product dissemination. In FIG. 1A, CD ROM 10 comes into possession of the user-consumer 14, e.g., by direct mail. The user-consumer inserts CD ROM 10 into personal computer (PC) 12. Computer 12 loads from CD ROM 10 and executes a user-interactive program 15 providing information and demonstration programs for a collection of digital products available on CD ROM 10. Once user-consumer 14 selects a digital product for purchase, the consumer initiates a voice telephone call to an operator 18. In the voice telephone call, user-consumer 14 provides to operator 18 a product identification 16, i.e., the product selected for purchase, and credit card data 17. Phone operator 18 then submits by batch processing the credit card data 17 and a credit/debit request 19 to a credit card bank 20. Credit card bank 20 then returns to operator 18 a transaction confirmation 21.
Submission of credit card data 17 and request 19 to bank 20 and return of confirmation 21 can occur by batch processing, i.e., not a real-time transaction. Accordingly, operator 18 does not typically have from credit card bank 20 immediate authorization to purchase. The overall interaction between operator 18 and user-consumer 14 is a tedious and often frustrating transaction for the user-consumer 14. In any event, operator 18 eventually receives confirmation 21 from credit card bank 20 and provides by voice communication with user-consumer 14 an unlock key 22. User-consumer 14 copies the unlock key manually, e.g., writes it on a piece of paper, or enters key 22 directly into computer 100. When a valid unlock key 22 is entered, user-interactive program 15 responds by providing the purchased digital product 23, i.e., delivers a working copy of the selected digital product 23 by copying a useable, i.e., retail, version of the product onto the hard disk of PC 12.
The transaction conducted under the prior art CD ROM type of digital product dissemination requires on average 15 minutes, and sometimes days, to complete. In some cases, the merchant, as represented by phone operator 18, may immediately provide the unlock key 22 to user-consumer 14, taking a risk that the credit card bank 20 may ultimately fail to return confirmation 21. Even so, the transaction requires significant time to complete and, importantly, requires that the user-consumer 14 interact verbally with a telephone operator and make use of, i.e., obtain by voice communication and enter manually into computer 12, a complex unlock key needed to complete purchase of the digital product 23.
Unfortunately, consumers don't want to remember or use complex unlock keys, they just want to quickly and simply obtain the selected digital product with as little intermediate activity as possible. Consumer's typically don't appreciate having to interact with a telephone operator and wait for the operator to return the key. Such activity is believed to be a significant barrier to this type of product dissemination. Software publishers have experimented with this type of product dissemination, but the response rates, believed to be on the order of 0.2 to 0.6 percent and at best on the order of one percent, are unacceptably low.
The Internet, an organization of hundreds of interconnected hosts or servers and an addressing scheme supporting world-wide personal addressing and access to data available on the hosts or servers, holds great potential for global distribution of digital products. Generally, the model of digital product dissemination on the Internet provides an area holding useable, i.e., decrypted, digital products and restricts access or downloading privileges as a function of an approved credit card transaction. Security, however, becomes a concern when disseminating digital products on the Internet. Financial data, e.g., credit card numbers, are passed across the Internet, perhaps through several hundred servers, before reaching the intended destination. Thus, an individual's credit card information could be scattered throughout the Internet, with the potential for unauthorized use at many Internet sites. A variety of security measures have attempted to make more secure, e.g., encrypt, transmittal of financial data on the Internet. Even so, persons with sufficient knowledge of the data transfer protocol can monitor or intercept communications on the Internet.
A further concern arises under this model of digital product dissemination with respect to the decrypted material. Decrypted material is easer to corrupt, e.g. install virus programming, than encrypted material. Maintaining and transferring the digital products on the Internet, or any publicly available media, in an decrypted form exposes the material to theft or corruption. A corrupted digital product could cause significant damage to an unsuspecting user-consumer. Accordingly, the digital product publisher may be exposed to liability for its dissemination of a corrupted and damaging product.
FIG. 1B illustrates by data flow diagram the prior art use of the Internet for digital product dissemination. In FIG. 1B, user-consumer 34 sits at personal computer (PC) 32 and interacts via Internet 35 with a merchant server 42. Such interaction includes opportunity for the user-consumer 14 to browse lists of digital products available for purchase at merchant server 42. Once the user-consumer 14 selects a digital product for purchase, credit card data 44, entered manually at PC 32, travels, via Internet 35, to merchant server 42. Merchant server 42 then forwards the credit card data and a credit/debit request 45 to credit card server 46. After validating the credit card information 44, e.g., by batch processing, credit card server 46 later returns a confirmation 48 to merchant server 42. Merchant server 42 then makes available the selected digital product 50 by downloading the decrypted product 50 to PC 32 via Internet 35. Important to note, all transactions illustrated in FIG. 1B occur over the public Internet 35. Accordingly, any such information exchanged, e.g., credit card information 44 and digital product 50, are susceptible to interception, corruption, theft or misuse.
While credit card numbers provide a prompt and popular method of payment, the user-consumer must protect his or her credit card data against unauthorized use. Enhanced security for credit card data establishes enhanced consumer confidence, and therefore greater consumer appeal. Unfortunately, providing credit card data to a computer bulletin board, a telephone operator, or to any merchant introduces security risks. A significant percentage of credit card fraud is by the merchant or merchant's employees. Whenever credit card data travels directly or indirectly to the merchant via a computer network, e.g., along the Internet, a variety of opportunities exist for intercepting the credit card data. Thus, while providing credit card data directly to a merchant enhances purchase automation, it compromises credit card data security.
It would be desirable, therefore, to provide a more automated and generalized purchase and delivery system for digital products. A variety of competing goals must be satisfied. User-consumer accessibility must support broad dissemination across a number of storage and transfer platforms while remaining sufficiently generalized to permit wide-spread use. Purchase automation must make the transaction brief and simple to maintain ease of use while protecting the security of financial data, e.g., credit card data. Furthermore, it would be desirable to allow public distribution of digital products without risk of corruption when installed for use. The subject mater of the present invention addresses these and other aspects of digital product dissemination and sale.